BYLBASIVKA, Ukraine — Early on a Saturday morning, Pavlo Zhebrivsky, the governor of the Ukrainian government-controlled part of Donetsk Oblast, is driving to the town of Bylbasivka, 650 kilometers southeast of Kyiv, to inspect repair work going on at a local school.
On arriving, he quickly walks from one classroom to another and snaps at the school principal and a contractor – he thinks too few electrical sockets have been installed in the language lab.
At the end of the inspection, the governor advises the principal on arranging the school’s garden. “Plant some flowers here, think about something in Ukrainian style.” Then he hugs her and drives off at high speed along bumpy roads to another construction site.
Repairing the damage caused by Russia’s war against Ukraine, along with Ukrainization of the predominantly Russian-speaking region, are the majors aims of Zhebrivsky, who has headed the military and civilian administration of the oblast since June 2015.
If successful, he would win more support for the Ukrainian authorities in the region, and would also boost the popularity of President Petro Poroshenko, for whom Zhebrivsky is a long-term loyalist.
But this might not be so easy, given that the region is split by war and some there still have strong pro-Russian sentiments. The oblast’s politics are also strongly influenced by former supporters of ex-President Viktor Yanukovych, including billionaire oligarch Rinat Akhmetov, the region’s biggest employer.
Still, Zhebrivsky has solid financial support for his causes, thanks to funds from the government in Kyiv, and cash from foreign donors.
In September, Zhebrivsky’s administration took in to the regional development budget about $86.7 million in tax revenues from businesses working in separatist-held territories that re-registered their offices in the government-controlled zone. Add to that some $36 million in the regional budget for 2017, and a similar sum from an environment tax on local industries.
“We also want to receive some Hr 3 billion (about $108 million) from the European Investment Bank,” Zhebrivsky said, speaking back at his office in Kramatorsk. “We have the projects chosen, and the paperwork is done for this.”
War and neglect
The regional authorities plan to spend the money on the reconstruction of the oblast’s major schools, water pipelines, hospitals, kindergartens, pumping and drainage systems, dormitories, centers for administrative services, and roads.
Most of the work has already started, and Zhebrivsky travels every week to personally inspect the projects.
“It’s not just destruction from the war – nobody has invested (in infrastructure) here for years,” Zhebrivsky said. “Only (the city of) Donetsk had construction and development.”
He says all of the contractors are hired through the ProZorro electronic procurement system, and additional checks are carried out on them as well.
However, he said that the law bans the regional authorities from investing into major re-construction of frontline cities like Avdiyivka, Mariyinka or Toretsk, which have suffered the most destruction.
In places like those, the influence of the Ukrainian authorities is little felt, due to the poor transport communications and the monopolizing of the airwaves by Russian and separatist TV channels.
Zhebrivsky said this year the authorities would restore the broadcasting of Ukrainian TV channels from transmitters in Pokrovsk, Selidove, Kurakhove and Bakhmut, which should mean the entire region is covered by Ukrainian TV broadcasting.
The governor said he doesn’t have recent data on how many residents in the oblast support the Ukrainian authorities, but he said he was sure they were in the majority.
“There are some ideological separatists, but there are fewer of them here than in some other regions located much further from the frontline,” he said.
Language power
Born in Zhytomyr Oblast in the northwest of Ukraine, Zhebrivsky uses the Ukrainian language as a tool for increasing support for Ukraine.
His office resembles that of a teacher of Ukrainian language and literature. It has a wheat sheaf wrapped in a rushnyk (a traditional Ukrainian embroidered towel), two small banduras (the traditional Ukrainian musical instruments), a lyalka-motanka (a traditional Ukrainian stuffed doll) and a book by Ivan Franko (one of Ukraine’s most famous poets.)
A view of Pavlo Zhebrivsky’s office in Kramatorsk on Jan. 14, 2017. (Anastasia Vlasova)
Earlier this month Zhebrivsky ordered all of his staff to speak only Ukrainian in the office. In 2016, he organized Ukrainian language classes for his officials. In spring, he plans to organize free English lessons for his staff, and says he wants to attend them himself.
He also only invests in the reconstruction of Ukrainian-language schools, calling this approach a “soft Ukrainization.”
“This is a carrot. We’re not forcing, but stimulating study in Ukrainian schools,” he said.
Nobody complains about the decreasing use of the Russian language, he added.
However, the Razumkov Center polling company published a study in June indicating that Russian is the mother tongue of 40 percent of the residents of the Donbas, while the Ukrainian language is the first language of just 20 percent.
Red lines
Apart from encouraging the use of the Ukrainian language, Zhebrivsky wants to develop the villages in the oblast, calling them the “core of the Ukrainian community.” The highly industrialized Donetsk Oblast, however, has the lowest percentage of village dwellers of any oblast in the country – with over 90 percent of its residents living in towns or cities.
Zhebrivsky also wants to boost small business – another tough task, given that small business generates only 7 percent of the income of the regional budget.
Most residents of the Donbas have worked in the same plants, mines and factories for generations, many of them under the control of the biggest businessman in the area – Akhmetov, the country’s richest man.
Zhebrivsky and Akhmetov are not on good terms. The governor recently accused Viktoria Hryb, a manager at Akhmetov’s DTEK energy company, of interfering in community issues in the town of Dobropillya, where many of the local miners work for DTEK.
Zhebrivskty said he has already met twice with Akhmetov to discuss their positions, and they had come to an agreement that he would not hamper Akhmetov’s business, in return for the oligarch not meddling in politics.
“If some business crosses the red line, then our task is get him back over it,” Zhebrivsky said.
New realities
The two men have clashed in the political arena before, most recently in 2015, when Zhebrivsky lost out to Akhmetov in Mariupol, the biggest city in government-controlled Donbas: One of the oligarch’s employees won the mayoral elections in the city, where Zhebrivsky openly endorsed another candidate.
“The patriotic parties didn’t offer a good alternative at the local elections in 2015,” Zhebrivsky said.
But he claims the situation has changed, pointing to the results of elections in three merged communities – a new form of the local government – in December. In two of them, the communities of Illinivka and Mykolayivka, a majority of the seats on the council were won by candidates from Poroshesenko’s party. Only in the third community – Soledar – did the Opposition Bloc, the political refuge of many former Yanukovych loyalists, win a majority.
“So it’s not true that the Opposition Bloc is continuing to win,” Zhebrivsky said. “The situation is changing. There’s no more monopoly (of power) here.”
He admits that many of the old local politicians have simply switched affiliation from the now extinct Yanukovych’s Party of Regions to pro-government parties. He believes many of those people deserve the second chance.
“Not all of the members of Party of Regions were vehement Moscovites. I differentiate between the ideological Regionals (Party of Regions members), and those who have adjusted to reality,” Zhebrivsky said.
One example of a former Yanukovych loyalist with whom Zhebrivsky is on the good terms is Oleksiy Reva, mayor of the city of Bakhmut city (formerly Artemivsk) since 1994, who was in Yanukovych’s party.
Inspecting two dormitories and a park being constructed in Bakhmut using regional investment funds, Zhebrivsky continuously praised Reva for his work. As they stopped for a quick coffee and cigarette at one construction site, the governor criticized one of Reva’s aides for not speaking Ukrainian.
But he said he was OK with the mayor speaking Russian.
Photos by Anastasia Vlasova
